The 12 Steps of Learning How to Care
by RaspBerryStars
Summary: The first time Ben knows Leslie is going to be a problem, he hasn't met her.


**Title:** The 12 Steps of Learning How to Care  
**Author:** quick_ly  
**Fandom:** _Parks and Recreation _  
**Pairing:** Leslie/Ben  
**Rating:** PG-13  
**Summary: **The first time Ben knows Leslie is going to be a problem, he hasn't met her.  
**Disclaimer:** Nope, _Parks and Recreation_ is sadly not mine.  
**A/N:** This was written for the lovely zombie_boogie who prompted _corn maze_ for a Leslie/Ben fic. Well, I tried to write her ficlet, but it was seriously one of the crappiest pieces of writing to ever be, which was wrong not only because she's awesome and deserves to have quality fic written for her, but also because I actually had some good ideas when first seeing the prompt. Anyway, after reading this (.) fic by cereal (which is without a doubt my favorite Leslie/Ben fic) I got my first shot of inspiration in forever, and ended up whipping this out in a couple hours. Big thanks to swayinisdancin, who read this over and got it back to me quickly :)

* * *

The first time Ben knows Leslie is going to be a problem, he hasn't met her.

They're seventy-five minutes outside Pawnee, eating at some roadside diner that feels the need to call its burger "The Super Cracker" (Ben's pretty sure that's supposed to be some kind of pun, but he's not sure what about). Chris being Chris, and therefore feeling the need to be on top of every aspect in his life (Chris's words, not Ben's), he has prepared a little presentation, including thorough information on all the new people they're going to be working with (aka firing) for the next few months. Nothing surprising: a mayor with more affairs than anything else, a city manager who believes in the tooth fairy more than the city he runs, a parks manager who is also a gun enthusiast; it's all standard. From the looks of it, Pawnee is just going to be another stop on the Ben Wyatt Redeems Himself Train, and really, Ben Wyatt couldn't care less.

But than, of course, there's Leslie Knope.

From the things Chris has apparently learned, she's nice and cute and good at her job, which is never great news for someone whose plans involve firing them. She's spent her life in Pawnee, and has worked in the government for the entirety of her career (also bad news – Leslies been there long, she's likely friendly with people high up.) And then, as he starts to read off her accomplishments (speed bumps on slides, birthday parties for parrots), Ben knows he's totally fucked. Leslie's one of _those_ people, the kind that dream a little too big and go out on a limb for things that don't really matter. Essentially, she gives a shit, and while that's probably great for the city of Pawnee, it's not so much for Ben. This is going to be an uphill battle, with him being the bad guy, and although Ben knows that if there were any more joy in budget cutting, he wouldn't be doing it, having to play bad cop all the time is getting kind of old.

As it is, he's right. Leslie is a fireball of enthusiasm, up until the point you cross Pawnee, and then it's war. He probably should have expected the yelling, but honestly, Ben's thankful he got out without getting anything thrown at him.

Still, when Chris mentions that they've been invited to a birthday party at some place called Snakehole Lounge, Ben decides to go. It's just this small part of him – the teenage, Benjy Wyatt part probably – that kind of wants things to go alright with her. Leslies the kind of people who feeds out this positive energy, that brightens a room and makes people smile. There are a lot of jerks in government, and not only is Leslie not one of them, but she also doesn't let the other assholes get her down. Ben can respect that, and trying to play nice with someone like that can't really be a bad thing.

(Well, when said person is drunk, it actually can.)

Taking her out for the beer is ultimately the best thing he's done since arriving in Pawnee, seeing as it provides him with the proper means to get on her good side. Benjy Wyatt isn't usually his first choice when thinking of conversation starters, but with Leslie, it seems like the only option. Plus, it's not like she could think any less of him (it's already become crystal clear that Ben is far from her favorite person). In fact, Leslie is probably one of those people that actually remembers Benjy Wyatt as some sort of a hero, and telling her might help.

(It does help. They end up having enough in common to make polite conversation without trying, and when they drive back to the office, Ben feels like this might be new chapter in his and Leslie's relationship.)

(It is a new chapter, but more on that later.)

And then, of course, the government is shut down, and suddenly they're back to square one.

Ben's not really sure why he calls Freddy Spaghetti, other than it'll make a bunch of little kids happy. And yeah, it gets him in Leslie's good graces, which is a plus, but that's not even why he does it (at first, anyway.) It's just that Ben's been mean-Ben for quite a while now, and really, that's not who he is. Ben Wyatt is the person who ran for mayor when he was eighteen because he thought his hometown had a crappy skating rink, and even though it didn't work out, he's still the same guy. And maybe that's the problem with making your biggest mistake when you're just a kid – you end up spending so much time trying to forget the mishap that you end up forgetting who you really are.

Well, Ben knows who he is (Ice Clown and all), and if it takes a children's musician singing about spaghetti-made dresses to make him remember it, so be it.

(Of course, Leslie's reaction is pretty awesome, and Ben realizes she might have been part of the reason he made the call.)

The next couple months go by pretty quickly. Fixing the budget isn't easy, but Bens dealt with worse. On the other hand, having to deal with Leslie is not something he's quite so familiar with.

It's not the requests that get under his skin so much, just her whole attitude. It isn't that Ben doesn't appreciate her positivity and hopefulness, because he really, really does, but having to argue about individual slides and benches doesn't exactly make this job go any faster.

Still, they make it work, and by the end of the summer Leslie's getting him his morning coffee and Ben's going out of his way to pick up extra waffles (he learned early on that the best way to get Leslie to agree to a cut is to feed her a sweet breakfast beforehand.)

Sometime between the first and last cut, Ben begins to kind of like Pawnee. It's not the city's fault that its history is a shitstorm of racism, nor is the fault of any its government employees. Really, Ben has to applaud Leslie and her fellow workers for believing in a town that doesn't have anything to believe in. Partridge was no Garden of Eden, but at least its history wasn't quite so bloody, and the population certainly wasn't as outspoken. If Ben remembers correctly, the only time anyone in Partridge gave a shit was when they were running him out of office, and even then it wasn't so much caring as saying things in really load voices.

And Leslie, for all her yelling and annoying positivity, cares more than anyone else. She's the one that stays up late, making phone calls and writing papers, so that this town can have good _parks_. Really, if Ben had worked half as hard as she does, Ice Town and his mayorship probably wouldn't have slipped away so easily.

So, against his better judgment, Ben starts to like Pawnee. And yeah, Ben starts to like Leslie as well, but really, it's kind if impossible not to like Leslie Knope.

She's Leslie Knope.

In the end, it's the Harvest Festival that really drags him in. It's the arguing with people about hay stacks and hours spent working overtime that make Pawnee feel like home (or what he expects home to feel like – Ben hasn't had a steady living situation in over five years). And after awhile, it becomes less and less about Pawnee (which Ben comes to realize is kind of the place he'd want to stay in), and more and more about Leslie, to the point where she is literally the only thing he really cares about.

It takes Ben a pretty long time to figure it out, but when he finally does, it hits him hard; having a crush, especially on Leslie, is kind of the worst thing that could happen in this situation, and yet a part of Ben always knew this was going to happen. From the first time she yelled at him, Ben was hooked: hooked on her enthusiasm and cheerfulness and promise to do whatever will serve her town best, and trying to pretend anything different was a silly idea.

When he finally accepts that, things become a lot clearer.

Of course, because this is Ben Wyatt and not some studly man, things go down in a corn maze. Him and Leslie have sort of gotten to this _point_, where he likes her and she maybe likes him (Ben can't really tell): they sort of flirt from time to time, and she'll occasionally looks at him a little longer (and with a little more feeling) than necessary.

So when Leslie suggests they go into the corn maze, Ben jumps at the idea of being alone with her (whether it's Tom or Ron or Donna, there's always someone.)Getting lost wasn't really the plan, but then again, things have never gone according to plan with Leslie.

"Leslie, we've been past that scarecrow six times already. I hate to say it, but I think we're lost."

"Oh _come on_ Ben, don't be so dramatic. We are not lost."

"I'm not dramatic, and we are"

"You _are_ dramatic, calzone boy, and we are _not lost!_"

It's weird, but this is the moment when Ben realizes why he's fallen for her; Leslie never gives up, never lets the bad guys win, never stops fighting for what she believes in, even when the truth is staring her in the face.

"Okay, you're right. I'm dramatic and we're not lost."

It's one of his prouder moments, (there's not a lot to compare it to), and apparently Leslie agrees, because she's looking at him in this _way_, the way she looks when things go her way or she's about to eat waffles, like he's the most attractive person in the world, and suddenly she's kissing him, full on the lips, with her tongue diving into his mouth and Ben has lit-erally never felt this free, like every one of those times when she maybe made him smile or blush, all the moments when he thought there might be something there, he was right, it was all working towards something. Out of nowhere, his life makes a little more sense; Ben hasn't spent the list six months firing people; he's spent it getting to know a girl who he might actually really like.

"Wow", Leslie says when they finally break apart, and he can see it on her face that she's shocked, that this is a surprise but she maybe likes it. "You know, um, I think I saw the exit over that way."

"Oh, yeah. I guessed we missed that." Ben's still kind of reeling from what just happened. "Hey, um, Leslie."

"Yes Ben."

"Do you wanna go get a cup of coffee?"

She just smiles.

From there, things kind of work out perfectly. The Harvest Festival is a giant success, and Pawnee's government is better than it has been in a long time. Eventually, Ben is offered a job as Pawnee's permanent budget handler, as Leslie says that it would be too easy for things to slip into dooms-ville. Ben's not really sure he believes she actually thinks that, but he quite likes the idea of staying in Pawnee, and after all, Ben's not sure he can go back to a life without Leslie Knope.

"Hey," Leslie says one day in July, when the weather is sunny and she insisted they go for a walk so that Ben can experience the full force of the Pawnee parks, "what do you think Benjy Wyatt would think of his life now?"

"I think he would be horrified to not be president," Ben says, earning a giggle from Leslie.

"Alright, fair enough, but what would he think of Leslie Knope?"

"Oh, Benjy Wyatt would think Leslie Knope is the coolest girl around."

"Better than Cindy Eckert?"

"By a landslide."


End file.
